"How many sailors can dance on the bow of a Santana 20?"
There are an infinite number of possible ways sailors pass the time while waiting for wind (e.g. play hearts, repair hatch cover hinges, work on an expensive tan, take a nap (our skipper was actually snoring on the boat as we slowly sailed around), clean your bottom...). Back to the question at hand and the last example. The Cheap Diver is like dental floss for your sailboat. We've seen these racing accessories used by a couple boats in the J24 fleet in Seattle. The owner of Q bought one and received a lesson because each bottom has "certain areas which are difficult to clean⁄reach." You're supposed to be able to "floss" the whole bottom including the keel. Apparently, it's all about technique and angles. In order to get the Cheap Diver to work its way down the keel of a 20, they thought it would be advantageous to raise the stern... a lot! So,
"How many sailors can dance on the bow of a Santana 20?"
Looks like about 5 or 6 (YMMV). At that point, some of them start to get cold, wet feet!
Sunday started out looking worse than Saturday... Windless in Seattle. By the time we arrived to get ready for "on call", the Loose Nuts gang had already discussed and determine their DNC time. They figured if there was no wind (& no racing) by 1pm, they were heading back home. I'm not sure that crossed our minds but it was early. Time for a game (or two) of hearts. By mid day, the RC couldn't wait any longer. Out we went to see if the air would cooperate for racing. Close to shore, the C division (centerboards) set up to race in the "Meadow Point Hurricane" (MPH). Most got off four quick races. The Moths and I14's... nada. Eventually, our RC set up a quick... (by that I mean short but by no legal means "quick") S-X-F. That's a start, windward, finish. Half a windward-leeward. With such a short course it seemed like one mistake could send you to the back of the fleet with no chance to recover. We wanted to be on port at the boat end and after ducking one boat got our wish. We were heading toward the eye of the "hurricane" - although we didn't know it by name at the time. After about a third of the leg, the extra pressure made up for our start and we started to pull away. The farther we went, the better the breeze. Unfortunately, we were getting closer and closer to the C division race area and in particular a drifting 35 footer with her bow pointed toward us as they watched the dingy racing. Once we confirmed with them that we were also racing they were more than happy to move... just not quickly enough. We tacked to avoid her. The smart thing would have been to tack back into the breeze... at least when the 2nd and 3rd place boats crossed behind us. We were sailing as if this was the first beat rather than the penultimate leg of the race! The other boats were catching on to the MPH and by the time we reached the windward mark we had dropped to third behind Giddit Off (two points behind us) and the One Eyed Chicken. Bob (tied with us) rounded in last place and headed back to the MPH. Hmmm... well, we went after Giddy Up and everyone else who forgot how we got to the windward mark in the first place and aggressively drifted straight down "wind" (if there was wind) toward the finish. In the process we fouled Giddit Off (by that I mean our limp spin sheet brushed their pole or some other imperceptible contact... what in the world we were doing there... I'll never know...). We dropped the kite (ha, it was a parachute at this point) and spun and managed to avoid losing too much ground. Giddy Up separated from up and finished first. Bob was spun out of the MPH on the run and almost passed everyone finishing in second. Our misery ended as we crossed the line in third for the race and third overall. Congrats to Bob and Giddy Up.
With racing postponed all day Saturday at the Seattle NOOD, there was a little pent up demand for sailing (if not racing). This was especially true for the "dinghy" sailors. After dinner, the wind came as you might expect. Seemed perfect for racing but that wasn't part of the program. With daylight waning, the moths came out... I've seen the International Foiling Moth plenty of times... in stills and video but not in person. It was interesting just watching these three set up their boats with some what of a frantic pace. Their problem now was running out of light not wind. As soon as they hit the water and literally jumped aboard, they sheeted in and took off! One in particular was up on the foils in 10 meters. Once the cleared the break water, they really started zipping around. It was really impressive to see them in person. It's difficult to appreciate just how fast they are by watching video. Unfortunately, they were out beyond the breakwater in a good breeze. Going fast and having fun!
Here's a video by Charlie McKee explaining how the moth works. It's pretty entertaining too.
I've never experienced a total shutout in terms of wind for a regatta. This year's Seattle NOOD came close. Friday's racing wasn't bad. The winds were light as we never really reached typical hull speed but the racing was fair (to the credit of the RC) and competitive. After three races, H2O Boa was tied with What About Bob? for first place with scores of 1, 2 and 4. Our bullet in race one was something of a special gift from Q. We were running downwind on the penultimate leg in third behind Q and Bob. Q appeared confused as they approached the finish pin (the same color as our leeward mark). They hoisted their genny, doused their kite, rounded the finish pin (going through the finish line) and were now facing us... looking for the finish. It didn't take them long to realize they rounded the wrong mark as they set their spinnaker rather quickly. Unfortunately, it took a few extra moments to realized the finish line was restricted and they incurred a penalty. We finished the run close to Bob and rounded outside of them. Their rounding was initiated close to the pin which gave us room to cut inside coming back up wind. With the advantage, we managed to cover Bob and cross the line first. Saturday's racing was a total bust. Nearly motionless AP flag... all day long. The forecast for Sunday wasn't promising but the centerboard boats didn't race on Friday... Their regatta hadn't even started yet. Sunday was in fact the same program all over again. Only this time the RC had to force something. So we went out on the water to wait...
Unless your job is sailing... I think this is a true statement from my perspective. People often ask me, "How was sailing last night?" or "How did the regatta go?". This kind of phrase comes to mind. Most of the time your worst day sailing is better than your best day working. While there are exceptions... almost any sailing experience is "better than a sharp stick in the eye"!
Well this might be one of those exceptions. Some members of our local Lido fleet went down river to sail in the Spring Fling with Willamette Sailing Club. Although I wasn't there, the story goes;
The skipper's meeting started at 2:00 under partly sunny skies and an 8 to 10 knot breeze. The first race started on time at 3:00 under menacing skies, a building breeze, and claps of thunder. About 30 seconds later a squall rolled across the river. As it hit [us], we luffed the sails and watched them flog in the wind. It wasn't enough to prevent us from being blown over. We tried to prevent the turtle to no avail. We righted the boat and were immediately blown right back over. We decided to wait for the wind to ease a bit before trying again. So, we climbed on top of the turtled boat and began to wait. I looked behind me to see if anybody else had capsized and counted 7 more of the 12 starters turtled as we were. Only 4 boats remained upright, 1 being an 81 year old [with] his grandson on board for his first ride in a sailboat.
The rescue boats arrived in no time at all, including 3, 2 manned jet skis from the Portland Fire Rescue team.
[We] were able to right our boat the second time about the same time the rescue boat arrived and decided to accept the tow they offered rather than sail back, as our machismo seems to have evaporated at some point during the adventure.
Several people had abandoned their boats in favor of the rescue ride as the river water got very cold, very quickly. It took a while to get all the people and boats back to WSC and the race committee decided to cancel racing for the rest of the day. Nobody was hurt and no boats were damaged.
2 races were completed on Sunday in very light winds with [one of our own] taking home a 3rd place trophy in the A Fleet.
Last week was a fine spring night for sailing. It was cool and mild but enough wind for competitive racing. Our start was good enough to put is in the top of the fleet around the windward mark. We held our position through the first reach but pick off several boats on the second. It was a little too far forward for some who doused immediatly after gybing. Only "Bimbo" was in front of us going around the leeward mark. Positions remained on the long beat back to the top. When we rounded the windward mark again heading for a tower finish, Bimbo went high. We wanted to simply maximize our VMG to the finish and put distance between us and the next boats. We went under Bimbo with Giddy Up and Aquila going low. Loose Nuts was gaining fast after recoving from an earlier infraction. We managed to pass under Bimbo and hang on to cross the line first. It was going to be quite close between Giddy Up and Bimbo. What happens next was captured on video on a Laser 28 after their finish.
Perhaps a more practical question is, 
You're supposed to be able to "floss" the whole bottom including the keel. Apparently, it's all about technique and angles. In order to get the Cheap Diver to work its way down the keel of a 20, they thought it would be advantageous to raise the stern... a lot!
